Game of the Year 2024 Edition: Brought to You By the Power of AI (2025)

I also left out Zenless Zone Zero and Honkai Star Rail despite loving and playing them near daily since they came out just because it felt weird to list gachas here.
And I'd absolutely put Nine Sols on this year's list but there's no way I'm finishing it any time soon with how it's kicking my teeth in.

I listed a song I really enjoyed from each game, some of the videos have spoiler comments but I only really highlighted that for the ame where I think the relevant spoiler would matter most.

Starting this off with a game that got bumped but I'd already written a small blurb for.

Warm Snow

Someone mentioned this in the last GOTY thread, and it ended up being the first game I played to start the new year. It obviously takes a lot of influence from Hades in terms of gameplay and metaprogression, but the core difference is that there's almost no story or character interactions to speak of with most of the lore being given through notes/item descriptions you pick up through runs. The game's sole focus is on the combat, but that's not such a bad thing to me. The 'gimmick' with combat is that you have flying swords you throw at the enemy in addition to your basic strikes, and most playstyles revolve around making a rhythm between the two. There's a little variety of archetypes to choice from when you start your run, such as elements, poison and a barrage of flying swords. In addition to the boons, you have relics that give your attacks and movement different effects to augment your playstyles, and eventually you can lock out the relics you don't like to make runs go smoother. Very fluid experience and I hope to see more content in the future, the first expansion they put out was an interesting spin on the base game's with its own progression system.

10) Afterimage

Song: Cradle of God (No one's uploaded all the tracks for this separately so I just timestamped)

Metroidvanias are one of my favorite genres; after hearing good things here and there in the relevant thread I had been waiting for it to hit a sale. The promise of a big map and boss fights that are fair but sometimes brutal are always big draws to me, and this game delivered for me on that front. With the gorgeous art style and lovely ambient tracks, I never quite got tired of traversing the huge areas once I had more mobility options.

Some bosses kicked my rear end numerous times until I picked up on their patterns, and I actually beat a couple of them with only a sliver of health; it was a kind of catharsis with those kinds of fights I didn't feel since playing the Dark Souls trilogy. The selection of weapons is small but focused, and I was drawn to the scythe and greatsword movesets (naturally, these are what I aim for in games that have them as options!). The only downsides for me were that the skill tree is rather obnoxious to navigate at first and the translation for the cutscenes is full of errors (but I don't exactly play these games for the plot!). I plan to do another run eventually, but it's been a really good year for game releases (again).

9) Subnautica

Ghosts

An alien planet where you're the only person around, surrounded almost entirely by ocean; beautiful scenery everywhere, a diverse amount of aquatic creatures, and remnants of sentient life that came before. This is the kind of setup I've wanted from a game for a long time.

I really liked the gameplay loop of base building to survive; making new bases as I could cover more ground, and figuring out where I needed to go and how I could go deeper. There's almost no guidance, which adds to the general sense of dread and unease that never left me until the very end. The ambience in this game is flawless, with all the noises that the various marine creatures make and the first-person camera adding to the immersion. Hearing the roars of predators that I haven't noticed before always unnerved me in a way most games can't. I even yelled out a couple times. I've played a ton of games over the course of my life, but I don't think anything's immersed me as much as this game in the past few years.

Another thing that I really liked about Subnautica were the last couple biomes for the main quest. I don't want to go into too much detail in case people are reading this and haven't touched the game yet, but those places were hauntingly beautiful and a stark difference from most of the game in a way that really add to the feeling of "I've reached the endgame".

8) Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Song: Defiant Charm

I didn't get around to playing the first one until last year, and I'd been eager for this sequel as soon as I finished it. While I wouldn't say I liked the main plot as a whole compared to its predecessor, there's so much charm behind the characters and sidequests in a way that exceeds it. The new party members fit right in, the updated combat gives more control over the battlefield and the new location in Hawaii is gorgeous; everything I could have wanted in a sequel. While I hadn't played any of the Kiryu games going into this, they did a great job in his segments of summarizing his past and the highlights of those games and I was emotionaly invested in his arc in this game. Ichiban's was definitely a fun ride, but I'd say they kind of dropped the ball once the plot split focus and it could have had better writing regarding the final boss of that side. I do wish there'd been a True Final Millennium Tower run like in the first game, also.

What really shines in this game for me are its minigames but especially the big minigames; Sujimon battling is a simple yet fun distraction, and the storyline that goes with it was actually pretty enjoyable! It could have stood to be a bit more complex considering how often you fight, but that's not a big deal in the long run. and then there's Dodonko Island. You're told to take a day or two off, and once I ended up on that island, I spent over a month in game there because I was utterly addicted to it; I didn't think they'd top the management minigame from LAD1, but they loving did it. I'd buy an entire standalone game of Dodonko if they put it out there, it was a fun spin on Animal Crossing (though sadly without the animal villagers!) and by the time I left, I forgot there was a whole-rear end actual game to get back into.

7) Black Myth: Wukong

Song: Listen Not (Avoid the comments, spoilers)

I was on the fence on buying this game at first with the controversy and how toxic the game's fans could be, but thanks to my friend I was able to play through it. It's got a combat system that gelled with me perfectly; one that encourages timing your dodges perfectly to help build up stronger attacks to slip into your combos. It took me a bit of time to get used to before learning that performance mode on base PS5 was janky and once I dropped down to quality mode, getting into the rhythm of things was much easier. (It seems like this issue is gone with the PS5 Pro, at least!)

I was worried it might be too linear while going through the first chapter, but from the second onward each biome had numerous paths to take, and there's a lot of scenery that I found enthralling throughout as well as a nice variety of bosses and smaller mooks to cut through. With over 70 different bosses, I have to be impressed that most of them were unique, barring a couple boss versions of regular enemies and a batch of giant frog bosses, one for each area. The final boss fight in particular was a fantastic capstone to the game and beating it on my first attempt was one of the best feelings I've had from a game in years.

I really liked the way you eventually get strong enough to clown on even the harder bosses with your trickster skill sets; past the second chapter's final boss, there were only three bosses that took me more than two attempts to take down and one of them was the superboss (which is easily another one of the highlights of this game but I won't go into that here).

One other aspect of this game that stood out for me was the journal, with a fable or short story consisting of multiple paragraphs written out for every single enemy, boss and NPC you encounter in the game. There's a lot of love and effort put into BM:W, and it really paid off after all the years it took to develop this. I'm likely getting the expansion for this day one.

6) Hauntii

Where the Sandwhales Play

There's not really much I can say about this one, it's very minimalistic but enchanting all the same.

It's a nicely paced twin-stick shooter with an emphasis on puzzle solving, where you recollect your memories in the afterlife. The main character's backstory is told through a few cute silent vintages as you collect stars in each level to form constellations (and choose an upgrade towards health, dashes or more mana before cooldown in the process). It really reminds me of Journey in some ways, with Buddhist influence at the forefront.

The main gimmick is that you possess different objects and creatures to influence the world and solve puzzles. It's not brain-wracking but not simple either; I didn't feel the need to look anything up, and post-launch the devs have added indicators per level for any stars (along with names that hint at how you might get them) or currency pickups you're missing.

But where it really shines for me are the vibes. There's over 40 beautiful levels to go through, each one characterized by its own song. I hadn't heard of Michael Kirby Ward before, he's worked on a few other indie games that I've not heard of but from talking to him on the discord it's clear he's so passionate about creating music with all the influences he's cited that the soundtrack's become more endearing to me.

5) In Stars and Time

Title Theme

I'd been looking forward to playing this after a couple goon recommendations but it ended up resonating with me much harder than I thought it would, with a finale that had me tearing up a couple times.

I've always liked 'trapped in time loop' stories; the way events are approached on different loops, finding new details using the information gathered from previous loops, seeing how characters change. Change itself is a central theme, from the setting having its denizens encouraged to remold themselves to whoever they truly want to be, to how going through dozens of loops, trying to follow a 'script', that almost always end on your death can truly affect a person. The impatience, not bothering to think about how your companions might see your actions when they're always seeing these loops with "fresh" eyes, becoming apathetic to ending a loop to try something else. From the way he talks to his companions to the menu descriptions, the toll everything takes on him is palpable.

It's difficult to describe those changes without going into too many spoilers, but the emotional journey our protagonist goes on is one that really tugs at the player if they connect with the game. It does a very good job of combining gameplay with story, especially in relation to doing the same things over and over again wear on the protagonist and you and how you can start to feel detached from everything around you, and the (sometimes horrifying) surprises that come about when you see where trying a different tactic can lead.

4) Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Queen's Blood Full Melody

I didn't actually play Remake until right before Rebirth came out, so the improvements for Rebirth were immediately obvious to me. The combat was much better tuned; Cloud being able to deal with aerial enemies with his base moveset, for one. Characters were more expressive and emotive, with quality voice acting to match for most characters. Hell, Cait Sith somehow became one of my favorite FF7 characters because of this game. Sidequests were expanded on in a fantastic way, giving all your party members some development on the side and being entertaining to go through.

I won't go too deep on the story details because there are plenty of people reading this (probably) who haven't been able to play it on PC yet, but there were a lot of powerful moments throughout the game, especially the last couple chapters. I can't wait to see what the hell happens in the third game.

The game's definitely got my vote for strongest soundtrack overall for the year; over 100 songs that just go all out in a bunch of fun ways (one of the best songs has lyrics that are just "bow wow wow" over and over again!!) and one of the reasons I'm looking forward to a replay is to hear them all again.

3) Unicorn Overlord

Song: Cornia Overworld (Night) (Couldn't find a non-extended version)

Before I even finished the hours-long demo, I'd ended up putting in a pre-order for this. With gorgeous graphics and a combat system that mixes together tactical RPGs with FF12-style gambits, I knew I'd be sinking all my time into this game before it was over. The plot isn't anything huge, but there were plenty of fun character interactions to make up for that, and a support system similar to Fire Emblem's that could be easily farmed with the restaurant facilities.

What I really liked about Unicorn Overlord is that there's really plenty of ways to break the combat and build squads that can mow through the enemies; when I go for another playthrough, I plan to avoid my main setups and try to go for something new. In the thread for this game, you could see a good number of different builds people were using for the game and that's really what I like to see in a game, a balance where there's not just one or two top choices.

There's a good 40 or 50 hours to spend running through the game and while some of the side fights were too short for my liking, it was a fun ride most of the way through.

2) Granblue Fantasy: Relink

Song: Final Judgement

I'd heard bits and pieces about the Granblue franchise but nothing about it piqued my interest until this; action RPGs are a weakness for me. There's a solid roster of diverse playstyles (though I settled on the scythe-wielding tank who had buffs that let him stay at 1 HP for a while as well as letting him absorb damage everyone took while increasing his own damage output), all the playable characters had their own endearing traits along with a backstory you could pour through as you went through the game. Despite starting you off in the middle of a journey with everyone already banded together (someone said it was like starting an anime in its third season and I liked that description!), it's very easy to pick up on who's who and what they're doing.

While the story isn't revolutionary, it was a fun little romp with surprisingly excellent bosses sprinkled throughout and some cool moments. It feels like you're starting an anime in season three with the lack of context, but the game does a good job at familiarizing yourself with the setting and characters so it's not that bad. Despite a good chunk of your playable characters not being present in the cutscenes, there's actually a lot of banter as you go through the levels and fights from those you put in your party to make it feel like they're actually involved in the plot. There were some really funny lines and the cast brings great delivery all around.

The post-game grind of repeatedly fighting some of said bosses to upgrade gear didn't bother me at all because the fights never really bored me. It helped that I had some people from these forums to run with, I didn't really grind up anyone else for an AI partty (which is a completely valid option as said AI performs quite well!) but sometimes I could rely on randoms to hold their own too. I'd love to see a sequel with a more diverse roster of bosses and a longer campaign, but of course not every game needs a continuation.

1) The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero

Song: Inevitable Struggle

I'd often heard about the Trails games in passing on the forums, but I'd never actually seen any gameplay or even pictures of them until earlier this year. Seeing a couple joke messages with bad puns that pop up when you open treasure chests was what finally got my interest, and after throwing twenty bucks at Zero, it ended up being one of those games I couldn't put down until it was done.

You play as a young man, Lloyd Bannings, who's recently become a detective, come back to his home city to look into the death of his older brother and idol. At the start, Llyod is introduced to a small group of teammates who operate outside of the police department; aside from investigating strange occurrences like strange animal attacks where they shouldn't be possible, this small team is also focused on going around the city (to some really comfy tunes), and helping in ways that the department can't or won't. Side quests here aren't just "beat up monsters", but things like "help search train cars for counterfeit smugglers" or "return this umbrella to a girl".

A big part of what draws me into an RPG are the characters, and, party members included, I rather liked everyone I interacted with. With a small city full of people whose dialogue changes very, very often throughout the game as time passes, the game does a great job of making the place feel alive and a lot of minor NPCs are fleshed out to a degree. You're even encouraged to talk to everyone a lot thanks to hidden side-quests and obtaining food recipes.

I've played the immediate sequel and I'm halfway through the next arc of Trails games at the time of writing, but Zero remains my personal favorite for the mostly laid-back vibes, relative low stakes and simply just being my first in the series.

FireWorksWell fucked around with this message at 22:31 on Dec 8, 2024